


You Returned With a Piece of My Heart

by ViolentFlowers



Category: Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Genre: F/F, Future Fic, Post-Book(s), Trick or Treat 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-23 02:53:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4860278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolentFlowers/pseuds/ViolentFlowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kasia returns to visit Dvernik and Agnieszka realizes just how much she's missed her.</p><p>"Show me what you've been up to," Kasia said and didn't let go of my hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Returned With a Piece of My Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [20thcenturyvole](https://archiveofourown.org/users/20thcenturyvole/gifts).



I admit that I was distracted, time was slipping through my fingers faster then I realized, but when Kasia appeared before me again I was completely unprepared. 

I'd read every letter she'd sent to me, scratched out in her deft hand, but somehow I'd forgotten the way she could make me feel. It didn’t hit me just how much I had missed her until she was standing there in the middle of Dvernik. She was dressed in a man’s riding outfit tailored to fit her form in a way I had never dreamed possible. I was barefoot and travel worn, as I always was, but she made me feel self conscious in a way I thought I had left behind. It was like we were young again and waiting for the Dragon to appear. 

I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, halting in the grass at the edge of the forest leading to my house, I barely noticed the villagers working on festival preparation as I tried to grasp all of the changes in Kasia. The Woods might have transformed her body into one that was hardened wood and otherworldly, but she had grown into it and made it her own. No longer was she the girl who could barely walk, who fell down stairs, now she wore her body like a weapon. She moved like she was comfortably in charge and confident that people would listen to her as she ordered the guard around the village. Why had the guard come here?

Then I remembered, the children. Kasia had told me Stachek and Marisha were coming to visit. Time had gotten away from me wandering in the Woods and now they were here. For one mad moment I pondered running away. To sit in the forest hoping to figure out why seeing Kasia so settled made me feel light headed and short of breath.

But I didn’t have time, Kasia paused in her conversation and her eyes turned unerringly to meet mine. I was frozen on the spot when she smiled at me. It lit up her face and I remembered how much I’d adored making her smile, trying anything to make her happy. As if she was my sun and I was turning into the light. She strode over to me, unaware of how she’d knocked my feet out from under me, pulling me into a tight embrace as if no time had passed at all.

She pulled back to touch my face, a tingling feeling left behind as her fingers smoothed down my cheek. She then leaned in and kissed me, just like how we’d kissed when we parted on the battlefield that day. A soft touch of lips to my cheek and I suddenly wished that she’d kissed me on the lips instead. That was such a shocking thought that I must have just stood there staring at her. She laughed, shaking her head at me, that fond smile touching her lips again as she threaded her fingers into mine and pulled me with her. "Show me what you've been up to," Kasia said, not letting go of my hand.

I lead her around in a daze unsure what I said or did as I showed her how Dvernik had grown while she’d been gone. Kasia seemed to take my absentmindedness in stride but inside I was in turmoil, thoughts chasing each other, turning our history over and over in my head. Like I was looking for an animal path that kept branching and twisting until I had to give up and cut through the underbrush. What I was looking for, I couldn’t tell you, I just knew that I had always wanted to keep Kasia close, and that while that desire had never changed... maybe there had always been something more waiting for me to discover. What I wanted to do with her when she was close had changed from childish games to something more illicit.

I took her out into the Woods and she marveled at how it had changed, it was no longer dark and foreboding, animals played in the trees and the birds called. I stopped at a giant heart-tree tugging her close to it. Even though I could feel her shudder she didn’t back away. Looking at the tree as if it could bite her she finally let go of my hand before taking a shuttering breath, squaring her shoulders and reaching out to touch the bark. Letting out a surprised noise she swayed forward, closing her eyes to lean against the tree. “They’re dreaming of summer,” she said sounding far away but there was a smile on her face.

Kasia stood there listening to the heart-tree while I picked the fruit from it and once she pulled away she frowned at the offering in my hand. I had to assured her that it was safe to eat, but the soft surprised moan she gave after biting down almost caused me to drop the jug of river-water I’d taken out of my basket. And still I spilled water on myself when I tried to take a drink. Passing over the jug I looked away in a daze at the heart-trees as if they were the most interesting thing I’d seen while she licked the juices from her fingers. I tried to ignore my desire but watching Kasia was a pleasure I’d missed, she moved with a casual grace, a hand resting on the hilt of her sword as she searched the forest for threats. I was reminded how different but yet how similar she was as I watched her take in everything around her.

My mind was whirling, had I always been in love with Kasia? Even though I already knew the answer to that question I'd always thought my love for her was like for a sister I’d never had, but it wasn’t. Lord, it was not at all. My body felt like it was on fire, my fingers tingled as she held my hand and I could feel the ghostly touch of her lips where they had touched my cheek hours before. I yearned to pull her in close and hold her body, solid and real, against me. And then my thoughts became not chaste at all and I couldn’t help but blush as I lead her back toward the village. I had myself mostly under control by the time we got close to the town square and I was able to stop thinking about it entirely as she lead me over to her entourage, where the children were playing, so she could introduce me. 

The whole village had turn out for the feast but as it went on my eyes tracked Kasia, she shone like a beacon that I couldn’t help but follow. More often than not her eyes met mine as I looked across at her, a soft smile on her face.

**Author's Note:**

> Lots of thanks to my wonderful beta reader for trying to fix all the things.


End file.
